Bremore Passage Tombs
Braymore Point, the rocky headland at the north end of Bremore Bay Beach, juts out between two long expanses of softer shorelines of glacial till and sand that form the northern stretch of Fingal’s coastline. As you clamber up onto the headland using the narrow coastal path that skirts its edge, you see that it is about 400 metres wide and most of it is still in use as farmland. Its geographical prominence is not all that makes this headland special, however. As you look to its northern shore, you can see a large earthen mound. This is the largest of the Bremore Passage Tombs, which have been standing here for more than 5,000 years, since some time in the later 4th millennium BC.
Passage tombs are perhaps the best known monument type associated with Ireland thanks to the fame of the Boyne Valley tombs of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. However, not all examples are so well preserved as these examples, or have been so well studied and conserved. Nonetheless they are all part of the story of Neolithic Ireland, the period which saw the arrival of a new population, new crafts such as pottery making and, perhaps most significantly, the adoption of an entire new mode of subsistence – agriculture.
Around 3500 BC, in the middle part of the Neolithic Period, these early farmers began to construct passage tombs. They can vary in form, but generally most consist of a cairn or mound under which is a burial chamber built of large stones, approached by a narrow passageway formed by upright stones known as orthostats. The tombs were often surrounded by a kerb of large stones around the base of the mound. Their primary role was as a place of burial, usually of cremated remains accompanied by artefacts such as pottery, beads, bone pins and stone tools. These tombs probably also had other ritual functions, and some of the tombs – including Newgrange – had astronomical alignments with key moments in the year such as the Winter or Summer Solstice.
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Aerial view of the main tomb at Bremore • Dublin
The Landscape Setting of the Bremore Passage Tombs
Coastal erosion threatening the main tomb at Bremore • Dublin
The largest mound of the Bremore Passage Tombs measures approximately 30 metres in diameter, and survives to a height of about 3.5 metres. The off-centre hollow in the mound is what remains of its collapsed burial chamber and there are suggestions of a passage running from here to the north-west.
Less clear is the presence of four other, much smaller mounds. There are two to the south-west, 9 metres and 15 metres in diameter respectively. Another, 12 metres in diameter, lies to the south east, with a fourth, about 11.5 metres in diameter, to the south-east of that. These smaller mounds have been badly affected by many, many generations of agricultural activity here and are all now no more than 1 metre high.
The roughly linear arrangement of the smaller tombs either side of a main tomb is similar to that found around Cairn L and Cairn T at the hilltop passage tomb cemetery of Loughcrew in Meath. The Bremore Passage Tombs also share a similarly prominent location in the landscape, as well as the possibility that the main tomb has a solar alignment. In this case, from what can be roughly deduced from the visible elements of the possible passageway, it may have been aligned with the summer solstice sunset.
What is really interesting about this small passage tomb cemetery is its location. For today’s visitor who has walked some distance to find it, Bremore is a quiet spot, well off the beaten track, where you can enjoy the peaceful sounds of the wind and the waves and seabirds. It would not be unusual to have the place to yourself. Research in the headland and the fields to the west of it tells us that this was not the case in the Neolithic. This coastal land was not just a place of burial, but also a place of activity and everyday life. Evidence has shown that it was the location of extensive stone tool production, mainly using nodules of flint that could be found on the beach. This and other activities were focused in particular around the tombs. The people living here were not alone on this piece of coastline either as another small passage tomb cemetery has been recorded at Gormonstown, just 1.5km to the north. These two cemeteries were inter-visible but perhaps belonged to two distinct communities as the mouth of the River Delvin, which even today forms the boundary between Fingal and county Meath, runs between them. As we can see from other places such as the Lingaun Valley, sometimes these modern county boundaries have truly ancient origins!
Coastal erosion threatening the main tomb at Bremore • Dublin
On a clear day, you can also see the Slieve Donard, the mountain at the eastern end of the Cooley and Mourne Mountains which form the northern horizon. On the summit of Slieve Donard you can find the highest passage tomb in Ireland.
The Neolithic people at Bremore were part of a much larger Neolithic world. As they looked out at the same horizon as we see today, they may have been aware of Neolithic communities in Britain and beyond, as archaeologists have traced connections all along the Atlantic seaboard of Neolithic Europe, with cultural connections expressed in shared forms of monuments and artefacts. So, while the Bremore people might have been on the edge of the land, they were also looking out at a highway of the Neolithic world.
It’s almost dizzying to think about the sheer antiquity and the countless generations that have passed since the builders of the Bremore Passage Tomb cemetery created their monuments to their unknowable gods or ancestors. However, their place in the landscape will soon be gone. The relentless erosion of the coastline, perhaps accelerated by climate change, will soon begin to eat into the land on which they stand. To help to raise awareness of this issue, we recently carried out an Abarta Heritage project on behalf of Fingal County Council to help to empower members of the local community to monitor the impact of weather events and climate change on ancient sites, particularly focused along the coast of the north of County Dublin. You can discover more about that project here.
As well as the important prehistoric archaeology of the Bremore Passage Tombs, the beach has a wonderful wealth of natural heritage to discover. It is popular with a number of bird species, such as the oystercatcher, both great and lesser black-backed gulls, herons, mute swans, common terns, redshank and cormorants.
Upper left: oystercatchers, common terns, cormorant and heron at Bremore Beach • Lower left: Dr Sharon Greene of Abarta Heritage at Bremore • Right: The light grassy mound of another of the Bremore Passage Tombs
Top: oystercatchers, common terns, cormorant and heron at Bremore Beach • Middle: The light grassy mound of another of the Bremore Passage Tombs • Bottom: Dr Sharon Greene of Abarta Heritage at Bremore
Bremore Passage Tombs Visitor Information
The Bremore Passage Tombs have stood sentinel on the coast of Dublin for over 5,000 years.